


evergreen

by windingwoods



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Fae & Fairies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 23:44:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13351998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windingwoods/pseuds/windingwoods
Summary: First to blame had been the wolves, then bandits, then someone had discovered a trail of fairy circles scattered across the woods, almost completely covered by the undergrowth by then, and that was enough for the public outrage to get out of control.





	evergreen

**Author's Note:**

> this sprouted from a half-idea i had for a d&d campaign and i left out a looot of context bc of this, sry abt it.  
> written for the fe femslash zine that's been cancelled.

The forest stretches all around her like a warm body Lucia’s grown familiar with enough to know every little mole and scar, the rhythm of its breaths. The green and yellow light filtering through the canopy dances its way to Elincia’s face and hair, giving her a glow like a halo, and Lucia thinks idly that she understands why the queen of the fae folk doesn’t bother wearing a crown. She doesn’t need one, not with the way the forest seems to mold itself around her endlessly, humming and glittering and enthroning.

Elincia smiles at her, open and curious. “Is something on your mind?”

Then she seems to catch herself, or maybe remember the circumstances of their encounter, because a pink flush creeps up her neck and cheeks. “I mean, beside the issue of the disappearances… that is.”

Something inside of Lucia’s mind still rebels at how _human_ Elincia looks, no matter the halo and the haunting weight of her eyes and the bell-like quality of her voice, but she’s known her long enough by now to hold this side of her dear. So she laughs Elincia’s worries off as politely as she can.

“You gave me your word it’s not going to happen again,” she says. “There’s no reason to still be worried about that.”

It had been a pretty nasty affair at first, enough to almost end up in flames by the time it landed on Lucia’s lap. There had been children disappearing, then older kids, the baker’s daughter, the blacksmith’s twins.

First to blame had been the wolves, then bandits, then someone had discovered a trail of fairy circles scattered across the woods, almost completely covered by the undergrowth by then, and that was enough for the public outrage to get out of control.

“Still, it was my failure as the queen,” Elincia insists, wringing her hands. “I’m responsible for the actions of my people.”

She looks almost crumpled, dejected and so unlike the radiance she was shrouded in during their first arranged meeting at her court, that Lucia’s head spins from the intimacy of it. She wonders if Elincia shows this side of her to anyone else, then chides herself: a queen is hardly someone to keep to oneself.

“You kept peace,” Lucia says, and digs her fingernails into the hardened skin of her palms to keep herself from reaching out for Elincia. When she gets no answer but the chirping of the birds around them she adds, “and dealt with it firsthand. The kids are safe now.”

Elincia’s lips curl in a smile at that, her shoulders stand a bit straighter.

“Thank you, Ambassador,” she says in a murmur no louder than the forest sounds around them, and when she reaches out to lace their fingers together Lucia dips her head like she would do when she was a child and the village cleric came to chase the spirits out of every house.

 

***

 

Sometimes she asks herself why Elincia still invites her to their secluded spot in the woods now that it’s all settled, but doesn’t dare to dream up an answer until one day Elincia cups her cheeks in between warm, hesitant fingers. Their first kiss happens in between a choir of cicadas singing the day their lullaby as the sunset bleeds all over the forest and Elincia’s hair and clothes and makes her red, orange, glowing.

Lucia lets her head drop on Elincia’s shoulder and breathes in the smell of pine trees, breathes out a pledge. When she looks up again Elincia is smiling like she’s dizzy.

“You know,” she tells Lucia some days after that, when they’re lying down on the moss and the ferns tickle their necks, “you could stay. If you wanted.”

The look she’s giving her is serious, almost conflicted, and Lucia knows immediately what she’s talking about.

“You want me to eat your food?” she asks, not a speck of fear left in her. Leaving her world behind and stretching her lifespan out like dough doesn’t scare her, nothing about fae magic does anymore.

How could it, when she’s tangled her fingers in their queen’s hair, tasted her mouth and skin, seen the glint of a shared secret in her eyes. She doubts fruit could drive her any more out of her mind than she already feels.

Elincia nods gravely though, like she’s asking the Goddess knows what of her, so Lucia presses their foreheads together as she laughs quietly.

“You would—” Elincia starts, stops when Lucia kisses her.

“I will.”

This time she’s rewarded with a smile, _finally_ , and once it gets time for Elincia to get back home, Lucia follows by her side.


End file.
